The present invention generally relates to financial planning. More particularly, the present invention relates to system and methods to provide portfolio planning that is adjusted based upon the specific needs of the customer
As individuals work longer hours, many people want a higher quality of life, including the ability to send their children to college, or simply to retire early. In order to achieve such goals, some people feel that investing a portion of their earnings is critical.
In order to maximize returns and minimize risk while investing, the expertise of a financial planner is often solicited. Before investing, the customer may decide what they are planning for, how long they plan to invest, how sensitive they are to the risk of losing part of their investment in an unfavorable market, how much they have saved or invested currently, et cetera. Many companies exist that provide financial planning assistance regarding mutual funds, stocks, brokerage accounts, etc. Among companies that provide financial planning assistance, one common occurrence is that these companies provide much generalized investment information, i.e. asset specific information—stocks, bonds, and cash. They fail to tell the customer specific products that they should invest in, e.g. Capital Growth Fund, S&P Index Fund, etc.
This generalized investment information is typically not beneficial to the customer because the customer does not know how to act on it. Oftentimes the customer is more confused after a recommendation is provided than they were before they solicited the financial planning assistance. As a result, they have to make multiple visits to the planner before taking action on the recommendations provided. Many who do act on the recommendations provided often do so without completely understanding what products they are investing in.
In order to clear up some of the confusion behind investment recommendation plans and to demystify recommendation plans for the investor with little investment knowledge, an investment recommendation providing product level information for each product recommended to the customer is provided.